Hello there! Are you enjoying this time of year? I would like to invite you to my first solo show in Italy. It is in Tuscany: Pescia, to be precise. It is a town famous for its productions of flowers [and greenhouses] and lies between Florence [Firenze] and Lucca. I will be showing a mixture of subjects with some new works never shown before, publicly. Come say a fun hello to father and son team gallery owners, Giovanni and Stefano. Here is the information:

As with my Web site, I hope to develop my YouTube channel based on the requests and curiosities of those of you interested in art and how it is created. I want this channel to be useful to you and could use your input and opinions. Thank you… and thank you for sharing, as well as subscribing. Go here now:
https://www.youtube.com/user/kellyborsheim/videos

This next video features the artworks available by my ONLY gallery in the USA.
Only 1 minute and 48 seconds!

Diver ~ Stone Sculpture in progress by Kelly Borsheim

The following is a stone sculpture that I am hoping to finish and include in my solo show in Pescia in a couple of weeks. My late friend Vasily Fedorouk left many sculptures with his family, but little stone: He was very prolific! However, there was a long and narrow rectangle of a fossil stone in brick red and grey patterns. His wife Dilya gave it to me and it is my honor to carve the stone and try to show off its beauty.

There was a point about a month or so ago in which I thought to myself, "Oh, I really like how this one is coming to fruition. Maybe I should keep this stone sculpture for myself, at least for sentimental reasons." Wow, I should be careful about my thoughts! That afternoon, I had the piece on my lap while I reached for my pencil. The stone rolled off of my legs and hit a hard surface just in front of my feet. The legs of the diver snapped off!

At first I was devastated and chastised myself for being passive-aggressive, while some part of me felt victorious because for surely now, I could never sell the Diver. But another part of me sagged, wondering why I must sabbotage myself in such ways. I later decided that museums are full of artworks that are restored or glued together, so what is another salvaged work to the world? I love this piece, and this stone, and decided to glue it and keep carving. Here he is in his current state, with some shaping and then sanding left to do. I will also add a heavier base to keep the stone from tipping later.

The first two images are how the stone looks now. The second two have the wet look, to show how the sculpture will look once he is polished and sealed. [The sealing protects the sculpture from the oil on your fingers and other "pollutants."]

The price will be 1200 bucks. Write me if you wish to claim him for your own collection.
Diver, a work-in-progress; dry stone.

Diver WIP - wetted
by Kelly Borsheim

Diver WIP - wetted
by Kelly Borsheim

Tango ~ Marble Sculpture by Vasily Fedorouk

Tango, a carving in Alaskan marble depicting a woman biting a man's ear during the dance.
Stone Sculpture by Vasily Fedorouk.

I love the playfulness of this dancing couple in the marble carving Tango
by my friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk. FREE shipping if you mention that you saw the work here when you contact Vasily's wife Dilbara to buy this sculpture.

Tango, Alaskan marble, by my friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk.FREE shipping if you mention that you saw the work here when you contact Vasily's wife Dilbara to buy this sculpture.

Life has funny connections, with one thing rolling into so many others. One example is when I participated in my first stone carving symposium in Castelvecchio in 2013. [That in itself was a series of happenings.] This same group of carvers was then invited to go to Bulgaria in the summer of 2014. There I met a Croatian artist who invited me to his home town of Grisignano [aka Grožnjan], Croatia, in September 2014. I was surprised because he entered me into an art competition called “Extempore.” In SIX hours, using his acrylics and not-the-best quality paintbrushes, I produced the work you see below, Elettricità, inspired by my walk through the small town that morning.

Elettricità, a six-hour painting by a very delighted me in Croatia, September 2014

I did not win the competition by any means, but I was surprised how much I liked what I had done and how fast I had done it. Also, this trip led to my finding my temporary home in Umag, Croatia with the lovely Miranda and Boro from mid-December to mid-March 2015.

A few months ago, I got the idea to reproduce “Extempore” in my new home in Tuscany: a region called Valleriana. My first step was to create a Web site to feature the local talents and list places to eat and sleep when one visits this lovely area.

The second step is to sell the idea of a plein air competition to the villagers. When I have time [ahem!], I have been visiting various groups around Valleriana to present the ideas of how it would function, what I need to make it happen, and to discover potential obstacles. That is an ongoing project, but my hope is to have our first event in early June 2019.

All of this to say that a friend of my landlord’s [and I hope my friend, too] told me of an event VERY MUCH like the one in Croatia, except that it lasts only one day AND is near the town of Pescia in Tuscany. So, I will be up early in the morning to participate in the
ESTEMPORANEA UZZANO 2018.

Wish me luck, please!

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Art Puzzles

My Aunt Nancy really enjoys putting puzzles together. So, she and I have been looking into putting my art on puzzles. We have not yet found a way to get a print-on-demand puzzle of 500 or 1000 pieces to a selling price of under $60, but she has been really happy with our two tests: puzzles made by two different companies.
Her first puzzle is with my charcoal drawing Splash, while her second one is from a photograph that I took during my first trip to Italy and my very first digital camera, Venetian Canal I (and then I really manipulated the image in Photoshop for some fun color).

If art puzzles interest you, please let me know. In the meantime, we will keep looking for a more affordable option to let you piece my art together.

I have been really enjoying licensing my art on the FAA products online:: 30 day guarantee... pillows, shower curtains, prints on metal, etc. During my Kickstarter campaign in 2015, the prints on metal were some of the awards and upon the success of that project, I ordered some and hand-delivered them to supporters. I was pleased with how happy people were with them: A good quality product and fast service! They arrive ready to hang, so easy!

If you see an image on my site, my blog, or even my Facebook pages that you would like to own as a print or notecard or pillow or anything FAA offers, please contact me and I will upload the image for you. I do not earn much off of licensing, but you know, every bit helps me to continue making art. The best part is that you get to enjoy the art images in a way that makes you happy. Win-win.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me. Thank you for sharing this newsletter with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Please let me know if you would like to commission an artwork; or add an existing work to your home or work collection.

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Give a Book Review:

Thank you for your interest and support in the book I wrote this past summer about being a street artist in Italy. I was thrilled to receive such glowing feedback about how I had shared not only the art and the artists, but also something of the political environment regarding street art, interaction with the public and other street performers (my favorite chapter is the one in which I have invited children to join me on the pavement), as well as images of the Renaissance City herself.

The book is titled "My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy." If you have read the book and would like to help in the promotion of it, perhaps you would consider writing up a short review for Amazon.com (or even send me a testimonial for my own site). Your review does not have to be fancy. The intention is to help other people get a better idea about what is inside and whether or not they may enjoy the read.

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